The Assassination of the Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval | The Public Domain Review ..or BROWSE BY TAG The Assassination of the Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval Only once has a British Prime Minister been assassinated. Two hundred years ago, on the 11th May 1812, John Bellingham shot dead the Rt. Hon. Spencer Perceval as he entered the House of Commons. David C. Hanrahan tells the story. Illustration of the shooting, artist unknown. (Source: Norris Museum) On Monday 11 May, 1812, an unremarkable, anonymous man, just over forty years of age, made his way to the Houses of Parliament. The man had become a frequent visitor there over the previous few weeks, sitting in the gallery of the House of Commons and carefully examining the various members of the government through his opera glasses. At 5.00 p.m. on this particular day he walked into the lobby that led to the House of Commons and sat near the fireplace. No-one could have known that he was carrying, concealed on his person, two loaded pistols. As it was a fine evening Mr.

Spencer Perceval, the Tory First Lord of the Treasury, or Prime Minister, had decided to dispense with his carriage and walk from No. 10, Downing Street, to the Houses of Parliament. He arrived there around 5.15pm, entered the building and walked down the corridor towards the lobby entrance to the House of Commons. He handed his coat to the officer positioned outside the doors to the lobby. As Mr. Perceval entered the lobby a number of people were gathered around in conversation as was the usual practice. Most turned to look at him as he came through the doorway. No-one noticed as the quiet man stood up from beside the fire place, removing a pistol from his inner pocket as he did so. Neither did anyone notice as the man walked calmly towards the Prime Minister. When he was close enough, without saying a word, the man fired his pistol directly at Mr. Perceval’s chest. The Prime Minister staggered forward before falling to the ground, calling out as he did so words that witnesses later recalled in different ways as: “I am murdered!” or ‘Murder, Murder’ or ‘Oh God!’ or ‘Oh my God!’ Amid the confusion, a number of people raised Mr.

Perceval from the ground and carried him into the nearby Speaker’s apartments. They placed him in a sitting position on a table, supporting him on either side. Most ominously, the Prime Minister had not uttered a single word since falling on the floor of the lobby, and the only noises to have emanated from him since had been a few pathetic sobs. After a short time Mr. Smith MP, on failing to find any perceptible sign of a pulse, announced his terrible conclusion to the group of stunned onlookers that the Prime Minister was dead. The Assassination of Spencer Perceval, illustration by Walter Stanley Paget (1861-1908) from Cassell's Illustrated History of England. Vol.5 (1909) Before long Mr. William Lynn, a surgeon situated at No. 15 Great George Street, arrived on the scene and confirmed that Mr. Smith was indeed correct. The surgeon noted the blood all over the deceased Prime Minister’s coat and white waistcoat. His examination of the body revealed a wound on the left side of the chest over the fourth rib. It was obvious that a rather large pistol ball had entered there. Mr.

Lynn probed an instrument into the wound and found that it went downwards and inwards towards the heart. The wound was more than three inches deep. The Prime Minister, who was not yet fifty years of age, left behind a widow, Jane, and twelve children. In the shock of what had happened, the assassin was almost forgotten. The man had not attempted to escape as he might well have done amid the confusion. Instead, he had returned quietly to his seat beside the fireplace. The identity of the man was revealed as John Bellingham, not a violent radical but a businessman from Liverpool. The details of his story soon began to emerge. As a result of a dispute with some Russian Businessmen, Bellingham had been imprisoned in Russia in 1804 accused of owing a debt. He had been held in various prisons there for the next 5 years. Throughout all of this time he had pleaded with the British authorities for assistance in fighting his cause for justice. He believed that they had not given his case sufficient attention. Bellingham was finally released from gaol and returned to England in 1809 a very bitter man.

He felt deep resentment against the British authorities and immediately set about seeking financial compensation from them for his suffering and loss of business. Once again, however, Bellingham felt that he was being ignored. He petitioned the Foreign Secretary, the Treasury, the Privy Council, the Prime Minister, even the Prince Regent, but all to no avail. No one was willing to hear his case for compensation. Finally, he came to the insane decision that the only way for him to get a hearing in court was to shoot the Prime Minister. Detail from a painting of The Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval, in the year of his death, 1812, by George Francis Joseph. (Source: National Portrait Gallery) On the Friday following the assassination of the Prime Minister, John Bellingham did indeed get his day in court, but only to answer a charge of murder. His trial took place in a packed court room at the Old Bailey, presided over by Sir James Mansfield, the Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. The tall, thin Bellingham came before the court wearing dark nankeen trousers, a yellow waistcoat with black stripes and a brown greatcoat.

The members of his defence team first attempted to get the trial postponed on the grounds that they had not been given sufficient time to prepare for the case. Mr. Peter Alley, Bellingham’s chief counsel, told the court that he had only been given the case the day before and that he had never even met Mr. Bellingham until that very day. He asserted that given adequate time, in particular to find medical experts and witnesses in Liverpool who knew Mr. Bellingham personally, he was confident he could prove his client to be insane. The Attorney General, Sir Vicary Gibbs, on behalf of the prosecution, argued vehemently against any such postponement. Ultimately Mr. Allen’s request was unsuccessful and the trial proceeded. The Attorney General set about dismantling the reason Bellingham had given as justification for his heinous act by arguing that the Government had been aware of what had happened to him in Russia, had examined his claims and had rejected them. He also rejected any notion that Bellingham was insane. He said that Bellingham had been well able to conduct his business and had been trusted by other to conduct theirs without any hint of insanity on his behalf.

Titlepage from the pamphlet 'The Trial of John Bellingham for the Wilful murder of the Right Hon. Spencer Perceval, in the lobby of the House of Commons' (Source: National Library of Medicine) When his time came to speak, Bellingham continued to base his defence upon what had happened to him in Russia: his unjust arrest for a debt he did not owe and the failure of the British Government to assist at that time and since. Before outlining the details of his experience in Russia, he stated that he was pleased the judge had not accepted his counsel’s arguments alleging his insanity. He made it clear that although he believed what he had done to be necessary and justified, he bore Mr. Perceval or his family no personal malice: Gentlemen, as to the lamentable catastrophe for which I am now on my trial before this court, if I am the man that I am supposed to be, to go and deliberately shoot Mr. Perceval without malice, I should consider myself a monster, and not fit to live in this world or the next.

The learned Attorney General has candidly stated to you, that till this fatal time of this catastrophe, which I heartily regret, no man more so, not even one of the family of Mr. Perceval, I had no personal or premeditated malice towards that gentleman; the unfortunate lot had fallen upon him as the leading member of that administration which had repeatedly refused me any reparation for the unparalleled injuries I had sustained in Russia for eight years with the cognizance and sanction of the minister of the country at the court of St. Petersburg. Bellingham was clear about where he felt the blame lay for Spencer Perceval’s death: A refusal of justice was the sole cause of this fatal catastrophe; his Majesty’s ministers have now to reflect upon their conduct for what has happened. . . . Mr. Perceval has unfortunately fallen the victim of my desperate resolution. No man, I am sure, laments the calamitous event more than I do. In the end, of course, his arguments for justification had no influence upon a judge and jury shocked by his horrific murder of the Prime Minister.

The Lord Chief Justice even became openly emotional and began to cry at one point during his statement to the jury: Gentlemen of the jury, you are now to try an indictment which charges the prisoner at the bar with the wilful murder . . . of Mr. Spencer Perceval, . . . who was murdered with a pistol loaded with a bullet; . . . a man so dear, and so revered as that of Mr. Spencer Perceval, I find it difficult to suppress my feelings. He dismissed any idea that Bellingham might have been insane at the time of committing the crime: . . . there was no proof adduced to show that his understanding was so deranged, as not to enable him to know that murder was a crime. On the contrary, the testimony adduced in his defence, has most distinctly proved, from a description of his general demeanour, that he was in every respect a full and competent judge of all his actions. In such circumstances it is no surprise that John Bellingham was found guilty of Spencer Perceval’s murder by a jury that took only fourteen minutes to reach a verdict. On the following Monday he was executed and his body sent for dissection to St.

Bartholomew’s hospital. He is remembered in history as the only assassin ever of a British Prime Minister. Following his execution John Bellingham's skull became the subject of research for phrenologists, representing the head of a destructive personality. Shown here is a comparison of Bellingham's skull with that of a 'Hindoo', from A System of Phrenology (1834) by George Combe Spencer Perceval assassinated | History Today Spencer Perceval assassinated The only British Prime Minister to be assassinated whilst in office was murdered on May 11th, 1812. Portrait of Spencer Perceval in 1816 by George Francis Joseph All that is generally remembered about Spencer Perceval is that he was the only British prime minister ever to be assassinated. By all accounts he was a thoroughly decent, honourable and competent man, but he was cut off in his prime and failed to make any lasting mark. A lawyer, born in London, the younger son of an aristocratic family and educated at Harrow and Cambridge, he became an MP in his thirties in 1796.

He was a Tory and a strong supporter of Pitt the Younger and the war against Napoleon. After being solicitor general and attorney general he was appointed chancellor of the exchequer under the Duke of Portland in 1807 following Pitt’s death and became premier himself in 1809. In his book The Assassination of the Prime Minister David Hanrahan gives a vividly detailed account of that sunny Monday afternoon in May when at about a quarter past five the 49-year-old Spencer Perceval entered the lobby of the House of Commons on his way into the chamber. A man who had been sitting quietly by the fireplace stood up, walked towards the prime minister, took a pistol out of his overcoat and fired it at Perceval, hitting him in the chest. The prime minister staggered and fell, crying out ‘I am murdered!’ There were naturally moments of complete astonishment as the man who had fired the shot walked back to the fireplace and sat down again. He made no attempt to get away as an MP called William Smith (future grandfather of Florence Nightingale) and several others carried the stricken Perceval to the Speaker’s apartments, where they sat him on a table, holding him up.

He said nothing more and uttered only a few sounds that Smith described as ‘convulsive sobs’. By the time a doctor arrived Perceval was dead. The pistol ball had struck him in the ribs. In the lobby meanwhile the murderer was seized and his pistol was taken from him. It turned out that it had been hidden in a specially made pocket in his overcoat. He seemed to be having difficulty breathing and sweat was pouring down his face. A journalist on the scene now remembered seeing him frequently in the visitors’ gallery of the House of Commons asking the identities of members who were speaking, including Cabinet ministers. The man said his name was John Bellingham and he was discovered to have another pistol on him, which was primed and loaded. After some anxiety about whether Bellingham had accomplices with him who might try to rescue him, on the directions of the Speaker he was taken to the Serjeant at Arms’ quarters to be questioned. He remained surprisingly cool and collected and admitted the killing, but said: ‘I have been denied the redress of my grievances by government; I have been ill-treated.

They all know who I am and what I am … I am a most unfortunate man and feel here … sufficient justification for what I have done.’ News of what had happened spread swiftly beyond the Palace of Westminster and there were fears that the murder might set off outbreaks of violence among the lower orders, many of whom were angry about the serious condition of the economy and the war with France. By about eight o’clock, when a coach arrived to take Bellingham to Newgate Prison, a mob had gathered outside and some of them tried to rescue him and had to be forced back by Life Guards. It was not until about midnight that a coach escorted by troops took him to Newgate, where he was put in irons and shut in a cell which was guarded all night. He soon nodded off and spent the rest of the night peacefully asleep. Perceval left a devoted wife and 12 children.

Though he was not remotely the equal of Pitt, one of his political opponents said of him: ‘He is not a ship of the line, but he carries many guns, is tight-built, and is out in all weathers.’ He was buried on May 16th and the Commons voted him a monument in Westminster Abbey and a substantial grant to his wife and family. John Bellingham was a businessman in his forties, who in 1804 had been falsely imprisoned for debt in Russia. The British embassy would not help him and when he was released in 1809 he returned to England seeking compensation from the British government, which kept turning him down. His sense of grievance mounted to the point where he decided to kill the prime minister. He was tried at the Old Bailey, his lawyer’s plea of insanity was not accepted and he was found guilty. He was hanged at Newgate on May 18th, two days after his victim’s funeral.

Related articles Spencer Perceval: Plaque for assassinated prime minister - BBC News BBC News Spencer Perceval: Plaque for assassinated prime minister 21 July 2014 Close share panel Image copyright PA Image caption Spencer Perceval was shot as he entered Parliament in the evening to attend a debate A memorial plaque has been unveiled for the only British prime minister to be assassinated. Spencer Perceval is said to have uttered "Oh, I have been murdered" after John Bellingham shot him on 11 May 1812 as he entered Parliament. The plaque at St Stephen's Hall, which is near to where he was killed, was the idea of Michael Ellis, MP for Northampton North. Mr Ellis said the brass plaque was a "fitting tribute" and long overdue. Bellingham was a businessman who had built up a grievance with the government headed by Mr Perceval, who had been MP for Northampton, after the British Embassy had refused to help while he was in jail in Russia.

Image copyright PA Image caption John Bellingham built up a sense of grievance after being refused help while jailed in Russia He waited in the lobby of the Palace of Westminster for Mr Perceval, who was on his way to attend an inquiry into Luddite riots. Descendant of assassin Bellingham calmly walked up to him and shot him in the chest before sitting down and waiting to be arrested, reports at the time said. He was taken to Newgate Gaol, tried and hanged in the space of just over a week. Mr Perceval was given a memorial in Westminster Abbey. But Mr Ellis started a campaign for another tribute after four patterned floor tiles, thought to mark where Mr Perceval fell, were removed by workmen during a recent renovation of the Palace of Westminster. "People know more about the assassination of (US presidents) John F Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln than they do about our own prime minister," Mr Ellis said. "When my constituents visit Parliament from Northampton, they want to see this spot and they are fascinated by this being the spot of an assassination of a former MP for the town that I now have the honour to represent." North West Norfolk MP Henry Bellingham, a descendant of the assassin, also attended the unveiling.

House of Commons Speaker John Bercow insisted no grudges were held against the current Mr Bellingham as he unveiled the plaque near to the assassination spot. Why Spencer Perceval Had to Die by Andro Linklater – review | Books | The Guardian Book of the week Why Spencer Perceval Had to Die by Andro Linklater – review There is an intriguing new theory on Britain's only prime ministerial assassination, which took place 200 years ago today Power politics … Spencer Perceval being shot by bankrupt businessman John Bellingham in the lobby of the House of Commons. Photograph: Hulton Archive Friday 11 May 2012 04.00 EDT First published on Friday 11 May 2012 04.00 EDT Share on Messenger Close High on a wall in Westminster Abbey, in anything but pride of place, is Richard Westmacott's monument to Spencer Perceval , who, 200 years ago today, was shot dead in the House of Commons, the only British prime minister so far to have died by assassination.

The memorial was "erected by the Prince Regent and parliament", and perhaps it would have been given a more prominent position if the prince had not been a late and reluctant supporter of Perceval's ministry. His straitlaced evangelical premier had been especially unhelpful in the matter of Princess Caroline, the notorious supposed adulteress. Reasonably enough, Perceval regarded her as much more sinned against than sinning and, by some skilful moral blackmail, had forced the prince to receive her again as his wife. But then again, had the monument been more visible, its oddly ambiguous message would have been more awkwardly legible. It consists in part of a relief depicting the scene a moment after the shooting. Perceval, dead or dying, is supported by two of his political allies in the campaign for the abolition of the slave trade. Gathered round are various other politicians, shocked and sorrowful; but it is the assassin, John Bellingham , who commands our attention. Taller than everyone else, he has the bearing of a man conscious of having performed an act of shining virtue, a good deed in a naughty world.

He is under arrest, but clearly has no intention of escaping, is quite willing to take responsibility for what he has done. It is hard to escape the conclusion that Westmacott, or the prince, or Perceval's successor, Lord Liverpool, was suggesting that between the pious Perceval and his cold-blooded assassin there was something to be said on both sides. The public was less fair-minded. Britain was in deep recession, for which Perceval was blamed; the news of his murder was greeted with jubilation all over London, and soon all over Britain. Bellingham, for the week of life he had left, became a celebrity, almost a hero. In front of the relief lies a larger sculpture of Perceval dead, and at his head sits the allegorical figure of Power, mourning her protégé, who had exercised his office with the utter single-mindedness of one who knows that there is no alternative to his policies. "He was a bitter persecutor," remarked his political opponent Lord Holland, "of such political and religious principles as he, without much painful inquiry or dispassionate reflection, disapproved." At Perceval's feet stand two more allegorical figures, weeping for his death.

One of them is Truth, "nuda veritas", stripped to the waist to show that she has nothing to hide, but by a judicious positioning of her left arm managing to hide that nothing from us. Andro Linklater believes that the full truth about the assassination has always been hidden, and has written this book to explain why Perceval had to die. In the process he offers a fascinating account of Perceval's enigmatically simple character and crafty politics. Bellingham insisted there was no mystery about what he had done, no secret accomplice, no motive other than the one he was only too willing to declare, to everyone, at length: even on the scaffold, standing on the trapdoor with the rope actually round his neck, he started explaining it to the chaplain of Newgate . He was a merchant from Liverpool who had become involved in the trade with Russia, and at the port of Archangel, now known as Arkhangelsk , had been imprisoned for a fraud he did not commit. He lost thereby a sum amounting to many hundreds of thousands of pounds in today's money.

He had appealed for help to the British ambassador in St Petersburg, who passed the case on to the consul, who did little to help. Thus, when eventually released and back in Britain, Bellingham regarded the government as morally bound to indemnify him for his losses; the future of his wife and children depended on the recovery of the amount he had lost. It was the right of every man, Bellingham believed, to petition parliament for the redress of grievances, but Perceval insisted that the government had no obligation to recompense him, and refused to receive his petition. Obviously enough, or so it seemed to Bellingham, his only remaining chance of a remedy was to kill the prime minister. He had no personal grudge against Perceval; to kill him would be a simple act of justice; and when at his trial he explained the reasons for his action, he would of course be acquitted and indemnified. His counsel pleaded that he was insane, but Bellingham would have none of it: in his position, anyone would have done what he did. The law officers, determined to hang Bellingham in short order, put him on trial a week after the killing.

They did not want to waste time looking for accomplices, and agreed with Bellingham that he was quite sane. They produced evidence to show how, weeks before, he had bought pistols, had a secret pocket made in his coat to conceal one of them, and had sat in the public gallery of the Commons, studying Perceval so there would be no chance of killing the wrong man. Surely these were the actions of a sane man acting with malice aforethought? Not so, replied Bellingham: he had certainly acted with forethought, like an executioner, but not with malice. He was no murderer. Linklater does not doubt that Bellingham was sincere in insisting that he had acted alone, and for the reasons he gave. But Bellingham, he suggests, was also the unknowing instrument of more powerful forces, with vastly more to gain than Bellingham by the death of Perceval. The argument that sustains this claim is ingenious and almost convincing. Perceval was shot on the day the Commons was debating a motion by Henry Brougham to rescind the notorious "orders in council" , the chief plank in Perceval's policy for the defeat of Napoleon.

In 1806 Napoleon had attempted to impose the "continental system" , which forbade the allies of France, and the nations conquered by Napoleon, to trade with Britain and Ireland. The orders in council were Perceval's retaliation: as well as banning trade with France and its allies, they forbade neutral nations to trade with France, and gave the British navy the pretended right to board all neutral ships in search of goods destined for France. Napoleon responded with decrees against neutral ships sailing to UK ports, and the US enacted an embargo on trade with all the belligerent nations. By the end of 1811, a deep recession and credit crunch had settled over Europe and North America. The value of British exports and imports had fallen by 75%. Liverpool was especially hard-hit, for it had lost much by the collapse of the slave trade and was now hugely dependent on trade with the US, half of which passed through its port. That trade too had now collapsed, and with it the increasingly valuable stream between Russia and the States, which also went through Liverpool from Archangel, the only Russian port France could not blockade.

In Washington there were calls for war with Britain, which came, after Perceval's death, in 1812. In Britain there were demands from merchants, shippers, manufacturers and workers for the orders in council to be rescinded. Few doubted that Perceval would resist, and that the orders would stay in place until Napoleon was defeated or Perceval ceased to be prime minister – both apparently distant prospects. When Brougham proposed his motion, Perceval stayed away, but was noisily summoned to the Commons to defend his policy, and was on his way to the chamber when Bellingham shot him at point-blank range. A month later Lord Liverpool, of all appropriate titles, became prime minister, the orders in council "evaporated", and the economy began to recover. Bellingham had been in London since January, attempting to present his petitions and then preparing the assassination. By the end of that month he was flat broke, but from February, his accounts suggest, he was reasonably flush.

Linklater believes that he was being funded by two men, closely associated: Thomas Wilson, a London merchant and banker to the trade with Russia, and Elisha Peck, an American businessman resident in Liverpool, men with fortunes to lose if the orders in council continued in force, and with every reason to wish Perceval dead. One or both may have been employing Bellingham, in a small way, as their agent; both would probably have heard him declare that if Perceval did not make him proper restitution, he would kill the premier. Both had every reason to fund Bellingham until he was driven to make his attempt, without Bellingham ever understanding how they were using him. Linklater's evidence for this account is intriguing, though here and there it has to depend on conjectures that, in the space of a page or so, are wished into hard facts. His case is impossible to prove, but too plausible and too much fun to ignore. Spencer Perceval Home - Criminal Cases - Prior to 1900 - Spencer Percival Introduction Spencer Perceval was born on 1 November 1762, in London, the second son of the 2nd Earl of Egmont.

After being educated at Harrow and Trinity College Cambridge, Perceval was called to the bar by Lincoln's Inn in 1786, becoming a King's Counsel (KC) in 1796. Later that year, Perceval entered Parliament, where his rise to power was primarily through his friendship with William Pitt the Younger. During the Prime Ministership of Henry Addington (1801-04), Perceval was appointed Solicitor General. In 1802, Perceval became Attorney General, retaining this position when William Pitt the Younger regained the premiership in 1804. When William Grenville's premiership ended in March 1807, Perceval (who was firmly opposed to Catholic emancipation) became Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Government of the 3rd Duke of Portland, whom Perceval succeeded as Prime Minister on 4 October 1809. On the morning of 11 May 1812, Spencer Percival told his wife that he had dreamt the previous night that he was shot in the House of Commons by a man wearing a green coat with brass buttons.

Spencer Percival is the only British Prime Minister to have been assassinated. By comparison, four American Presidents have been assassinated: Abraham Lincoln (1865), James Abram Garfield (1881), William McKinley (1901) and John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1963). John Bellingham John Bellingham John Bellingham sent a number of petitions and letters to General Gascoyne, the Member of Parliament for Liverpool. Bellingham claimed that he had provided certain services to the Crown in Russia and that he had received no remuneration. He had also made numerous representations to both the Speaker of the House and Spencer Percival, the Prime Minister. Despite the pleading of his family not to go to Parliament that day, Perceval felt he had to attend as his Premiership was being questioned due to current conduct of the Peninsula Campaign. At about 5pm on the afternoon of 11 May 1812, Perceval left the House of Common's chamber when Bellingham approached from behind some folding-doors and fired one shot at Perceval which hit him in the chest.

The shooting of Spencer Perceval by John Bellingham Lord Osborne (behind Perceval in the picture above) rushed forward to catch Perceval as he fell backwards, and other Members rushed forward to provide assistance. This group carried Perceval into the Speaker's Rooms but was obvious that the Prime Minister was already dead; he had been hit by one shot which had penetrated his heart. After the excitement caused by the shooting had quietened down, someone called out "Who was the rascal who did it?". At this moment a stranger to the House (a person who is not a Member of Parliament) walked up and calmly said "I am the unfortunate man". Bellingham made no attempt to escape, although he had by this time discarded his pistol. After being recognised by General Gascoyne, the Member for Liverpool, Bellingham was taken to a private room beyond the House's lobby area. While here, Bellingham was questioned by Mr. Watson (the House's Sergeant-at-Arms), Mr. Alderman Combe, Mr. Angelo Taylor and other Magistrates began an official examination of Bellingham.

On the day of the inquest into the death of Spencer Percival, Bellingham sent the following letter to his landlady: Dear Madam : Yesterday midnight I was escorted to this neighbourhood by a noble troop of Light Horse, and delivered into the care of Mr. Newman (by Mr. Taylor the Magistrate and MP) as a state prisoner of the first class. For eight years I have never found my mind so tranquil as since this melancholy but necessary catastrophe, as the merits or demerits of my peculiar case must be regularly unfolded in a criminal court of justice, to ascertain the guilty party, by a jury of my country. I have to request the favour of you to send me three or four shirts, some cravats, handkerchiefs, night-caps, stockings, etc, out of my drawers, together with comb, soap, toothbrush, with any other trifle which presents itself which you may think I may have occasion for, and enclose them in my leather trunk, and the key, please to send sealed per bearer; also my great-coat, flannel gown, and black waistcoat, which will much oblige. Dear madam, your obedient servant, John Bellingham.

To the above please to add the Prayer Book. On Friday 15 May 1812 (4 days after Perceval's death), Bellingham appeared at the Old Bailey charged with Perceval's murder, to which Bellingham pleaded not guilty. The judges were Lord Chief Justice Mansfield, Baron Graham and Sir Nash Grose. The Prosecution Case was very short as there were plenty of witnesses that identified Bellingham as the person who fired the shot that killed Perceval. For his defence, Bellingham read a long statement in which he said that his attack was aimed at the office of Prime Minister and not the person occupying the post. Bellingham then went on to say that he had been robbed of his liberty for years, ill-treated, torn from his wife and family, robbed of all his property and everything that had made his life valuable. When Bellingham had finished his statement, his counsel then called witnesses who testified to Bellingham insanity. In his summing up, the Lord Chief Justice pointed out that there were some forms of insanity in which the victim was unable to judge between right and wrong. However, he felt that this type of insanity was not present in this case.

John Bellingham was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death by hanging. On 18 May 1812 (7 days after Perceval's shooting), John Bellingham was executed in front of Newgate Prison; the executioner was William Brunskill. History of Spencer Perceval - GOV.UK GOV.UK Spencer Perceval Tory 1809 to 1812 Born 1 November 1762, Audley Square, London Died 11 May 1812, Lobby of the House of Commons Dates in office Tory Major acts Regency Bill 1810: due to George III’s ill health the Prince of Wales was appointed Regent. Interesting facts He was the only Prime Minister to be assassinated whilst holding office. The current Conservative MP Henry Bellingham is a direct descendent of the assassin John Bellingham. During a debate on corrupt electoral practices: “I have nothing to say to the nothing that has been said”. Spencer Perceval enjoys the unfortunate distinction of being the only British Prime Minister to die at the hands of an assassin. His political career coincided with a period of upheaval created by the French Revolution.

Having pursued a successful legal career, he was slowly drawn into politics. The Assassination of Prime Minister Spencer Perceval|MurderMap - London Homicide Reported Direct from The Old Bailey Case synopsis: Only one British Prime Minister has ever been assassinated. Spencer Perceval was shot in the Palace of Westminster in 1812 after serving just three years in office. During that time he presided over an unstable government, a financial crisis and a series of setbacks in the Napoleonic wars. But it was the bitterness of a bankrupt businessman that lay behind his murder. John Bellingham, an export trader, had become obsessed with gaining compensation for his six-year imprisonment in a Russian jail. It is thought he had personally approached the Prime Minister for help. After a final failed visit to the foreign office, he bought two pistols and hid them in a secret compartment in his coat. On May 11 he travelled to Parliament and waited until Spencer Perceval walked from the House of Commons chamber into the lobby. Bellingham then took out a gun and shot him in the chest. The Prime Minister is reported to have said 'I am murdered. I am murdered' before collapsing with a fatal bullet wound to the heart.

19th century engraving of the shooting of Spencer Perceval inside the House of Commons Bellingham, a 35 year-old father-of-three, simply sat down and waited to be arrested. His trial at the Old Bailey took place just four days later. He pleaded not guilty to murder and told the jury his actions should be a lesson to future Prime Ministers. Bellingham said: "Recollect, Gentlemen, what was my situation. Recollect that my family was ruined and myself destroyed, merely because it was Mr Perceval's pleasure that justice should not be granted; sheltering himself behind the imagined security of his station, and trampling upon law and right in the belief that no retribution could reach him. "I demand only my right, and not a favour; I demand what is the birthright and privilege of every Englishman. Gentlemen, when a minister sets himself above the laws, as Mr Perceval did, he does it as his own personal risk. If this were not so, the mere will of the minister would become the law, and what would then become of your liberties?

"I trust that this serious lesson will operate as a warning to all future ministers, and that they will henceforth do the thing that is right, for if the upper ranks of society are permitted to act wrong with impunity, the inferior ramifications will soon become wholly corrupted. Gentlemen, my life is in your hands, I rely confidently in your justice." Despite his pleas, he was convicted of murder and hanged in front of Newgate Prison on May 18. The Lord Chief Justice told him: "You have been convicted by a most attentive and a most merciful jury, of one of the most malicious and atrocious crimes it is in the power of human nature to perpetrate - that of wilful and premeditated murder! "You have shed the blood of a man admired for every virtue which can adorn public or private life - a man, whose suavity and meekness of manner was calculated to disarm all political rancour, and to deprive violence of its asperity.

"By his death, charity has lost one of its greatest promoters; religion, one of its firmest supporters; domestic society, one of its happiest and sweetest examples; and the country, one of its brightest ornaments - a man, whose ability and worth was likely to produce lasting advantages to this empire, and ultimate benefit to the world." Nearly two hundred years later, in 2001, the killer's descendent Henry Bellingham was elected MP for North West Norfolk. In a feature on the BBC website , he is reported as saying: "I've always avoided raising the murder myself and I wouldn't bring it up in conversation that I'm a descendant - or a near-descendant - of a murderer of a prime minister. But I don't try to deny it." Prime Minister Spencer Perceval (left) and assassin John Bellingham (right) Further reading: A transcript of the trial can be found on the Old Bailey online website . More details on the career of Spencer Perceval can be found on the Victorian Web site and there are wikipedia articles on both Perceval and Bellingham. The image of Perceval is a painting by George Francis Joseph.

‹Back to Map Mailbox: Send us your comments about this item.... we will pick out and publish the best ones: Mailbox@murdermap.co.uk Back to top› Spencer Perceval, the assassinated prime minister that history forgot | Politics | The Guardian Politics Spencer Perceval, the assassinated prime minister that history forgot The bicentenary of his assassination on 11 May 1812, in the lobby of the House of Commons, is being marked by national institutions and local churches An artist's version of Spencer Perceval being assassinated by an embittered businessman, John Bellingham.

Image: Hulton Archive/Getty Politics Spencer Perceval, the assassinated prime minister that history forgot The bicentenary of his assassination on 11 May 1812, in the lobby of the House of Commons, is being marked by national institutions and local churches Thursday 10 May 2012 10.06 EDT First published on Thursday 10 May 2012 10.06 EDT Close This article is 4 years old Until the posters announcing a bicentenary memorial service and concert started to appear, few people even in Charlton – once a village on a hill overlooking the Thames, now swamped in the suburban sprawl and traffic east of Greenwich – knew that a man with a unique place in British history was buried in their church . Before 11 May 1812, Spencer Perceval might have hoped history would remember him as a brilliant legal mind, a shrewd politician who became prime minister at a tricky time, when the Tory George III was mad and the Whig Prince Regent recklessly extravagant, or even as the co-star of a surprisingly romantic runaway marriage and father of 12 children. But 11 May changed all that.

As Perceval slipped into the lobby of the House of Commons through a side door, John Bellingham, a businessman with a festering grudge against the government, stepped forward and shot him through the heart at point-blank range. Perceval just had time to murmur "Oh, my God", or "Murder" – as shown in documents the National Archives has just released online to mark the bicentenary, the horrified witnesses had confused memories – before he fell, the first and only assassinated British prime minister. "He was a good man, a truly religious man, and he deserves to be remembered," the rector of St Luke's, Erica Wooff, said of the memorial service that Perceval's descendant Lord Gough will attend, and the concert of music of his time. "We didn't want to celebrate a murder; we want to celebrate his life." Within a week, Bellingham had been tried, refused leave to plead insanity and found guilty, executed by public hanging at Newgate and handed over to the anatomists to be dissected. Perceval, meanwhile, was brought in an impressive funeral procession from Downing Street to Charlton, to be buried in a family vault at St Luke's.

The last man to have seen his face, however, is the retired sacristan of the church, Vic Skinner, nearly two centuries later. In the 1980s, Lord Gough was concerned that damp – the church is in urgent need of expensive restoration work – subsidence and the constant rumble of passing heavy traffic might be disturbing the bones of his ancestors. So the flag stones were taken up and Skinner, who has spent most of his life working for St Luke's, descended nervously by ladder into the vault, just below Perceval's wall memorial, with a portrait bust by the celebrated sculptor Sir Francis Chantrey . He found that the coffins were indeed slipping and in danger of falling from their marble shelves, and that the lead lid of Perceval's was ajar. Skinner could not resist looking in, and was astounded. "I've seen the sculpture of him almost every day of my life, and I would have recognised him immediately: his body was absolutely perfect. He was buried in a black suit, and that was showing the marks of time, but his face looked as if he'd been down there a week, not 200 years.

He looked very peaceful." St Luke's is opposite Charlton House, now a public park, library and council offices, where Perceval was brought up in grandeur but not wealth: he was the seventh of 12 children, and the second son of the second marriage of the Irish peer Lord Egmont, who died when he was eight. A pale and modest man, he had to work for his living, and eloped because his prospective father-in-law turned him down flat. When he died, Perceval is said to have had £106 5s and a penny in his bank account. A contemporary MP, Henry Grattan, described him admiringly as: "Not a ship-of-the line, but he carries many guns, is tight built, and is out in all weathers." At his trial, Bellingham, who blamed the government for not freeing him from imprisonment in Russia, apologised to the Perceval family, and explained that he would have preferred to shoot the British ambassador to St Petersburg.

All of Perceval's portraits, including one in the Palace of Westminster, were made from his death mask, which has been on display at another London church, All Saints in Ealing , built in his memory in 1905 on the site of his last family home. All Saints is also holding a service and concert to commemorate the assassination. The marble bust at St Luke's has a faint, enigmatic smile. Gwen Zammit, leader of the group of parishioners who have organised the commemoration, has tenderly dusted it for the event. "We're very fond of him, he's one of us and we're honoured to have him." • This article was amended on Friday 11 May 2002. The last man to have seen Spencer Perceval's face was Vic Skinner, not Stringer as we said originally. This has been corrected. Spencer Perceval Spencer Perceval ▼ Primary Sources ▼ Spencer Perceval Spencer Perceval, the son of the 2nd Earl of Egmont, was born in 1762. After being educated at Harrow and Trinity College , Cambridge , he became a lawyer.

In 1796 Perceval was elected MP for Northampton . In the House of Commons Perceval became a strong supporter of William Pitt and the Tory group in Parliament. When Henry Addington became Prime Minister in 1801 he appointed Perceval as his solicitor-general. The following year he was promoted to attorney-general. When Lord Portland became Prime Minister in 1807 he appointed Perceval as his Chancellor of the Exchequer. Perceval got on well with George III and loyally supported the king's opposition to Catholic Emancipation . When Portland died in 1809, Spencer Perceval accepted the king offer to become Prime Minister. Perceval's period of power coincided with an economic depression and considerable industrial unrest. This resulted in his government introducing repressive methods against the Luddites . This included the Frame-Breaking Act which made the destruction of machines a capital offence. Perceval held the post until 1812 when he became the only British Prime Minister in history to be assassinated. Spencer Perceval was shot when entering the lobby of the House of Commons by John Bellingham , a failed businessman from Liverpool .

Bellingham, who blamed Perceval for his financial difficulties, was later hanged for his crime. ▲ Main Article ▲ Primary Sources (1) After Spencer Perceval's assassination in 1812, Stuart Wortley, made a speech in the House of Commons about the former Prime Minister (21st May, 1812) Mr. Perceval had great talents. He was anxious to see an administration formed upon a liberal basis, calculated to comprehend the talents and influences of the country, and to promote its security and honour. (2) Archibald Prentice , wrote about the Luddite disturbances in April 1812, in his book Historical Sketches and Personal Recollections of Manchester . On Saturday, the 18th April, a numerous body of women, chiefly women, assembled at the potato market, Shude Hill, where the sellers were asking 14s. and 15s. per load (252 lbs.) for potatoes. Some of the women began forcibly to take possession of the articles; but the civil and military power interposing, to fix a sort of maximum, for eight shillings per load, at which they were sold in small portions.

On Monday a cart carrying fourteen loads of meal was stopped, and the meal carried away. On 27th April a riotous assembly took place at Middleton. The weaving factory of Mr. Burton and Sons had been previously threatened in consequence of their mode of weaving being done by the operation of steam. The factory was protected by soldiers, so strongly as to be impregnable to their assault; they then flew to the house of Mr. Emanuel Burton, where they wreaked their vengeance by setting it on fire. On Friday, the 24th April, a large body of weavers and mechanics began to assemble about midday, with the avowed intention of destroying the power-looms, together with the whole of the premises, at Westhoughton. The military rode at full speed to Westhoughton; and on their arrival were surprised to find that the premises were entirely destroyed, while not an individual could be seen to whom attached any suspicion of having acted a part in this truly dreadful outrage.

(3) Lord Byron , speech in the House of Lords (27th February, 1812) During the short time I recently passed in Nottingham, not twelve hours elapsed without some fresh act of violence; and on that day I left the the county I was informed that forty Frames had been broken the preceding evening, as usual, without resistance and without detection. Such was the state of that county, and such I have reason to believe it to be at this moment. But whilst these outrages must be admitted to exist to an alarming extent, it cannot be denied that they have arisen from circumstances of the most unparalleled distress: the perseverance of these miserable men in their proceedings, tends to prove that nothing but absolute want could have driven a large, and once honest and industrious, body of the people, into the commission of excesses so hazardous to themselves, their families, and the community. They were not ashamed to beg, but there was none to relieve them: their own means of subsistence were cut off, all other employment preoccupied; and their excesses, however to be deplored and condemned, can hardly be subject to surprise. As the sword is the worst argument than can be used, so should it be the last.

In this instance it has been the first; but providentially as yet only in the scabbard. The present measure will, indeed, pluck it from the sheath; yet had proper meetings been held in the earlier stages of these riots, had the grievances of these men and their masters (for they also had their grievances) been fairly weighed and justly examined, I do think that means might have been devised to restore these workmen to their avocations, and tranquillity to the country. (4) Colonel Fletcher of Bolton was shocked by how people in his town responded to the death of Spencer Perceval. The people expressed joy at the news. A man came running down the street, leaping in the air, waving his hate round his head, and shouting with frantic joy, "Perceval is shot, hurrah! Perceval is shot, hurrah!"

Question: Who shot PM Spencer Perceval?
Answer: JOHN BELLINGHAM